There’s talk Jacques Martin wants to spread the Richie-Rich wealth around and drop Max-Pac onto the Rich-line while bumping Cammalleri to the second line to “balance the attack” but chances are the Richie-Rich Line will be Martin’s go-to trio when the game’s on the line and a must for the #1 PP + PK units.

The Montreal Canadiens2009 Rookie Camp is in its third day and the focus to date has been on Teamwork and Leadership .

On-ice drills started early in the morning and players were seen leaving the ice at 9:30PM Tuesday Sept.8th. Off-ice drills at the in-door soccer field include teams of three players pitted against another trio with the twist being two-out-of-three players per team being blind folded while the lone seeing player guides his teammates. Clearly some new techniques being employed by the new coaching staff.

As I wait for the new season to begin, I can't help but wonder how things will unfold thru training camp with new faces battling for the few roster spots avail., whether the Captaincy will be awarded to someone new, someone old or perhaps no one, how long Bob Gainey will last as Montreal's GM before the pending new ownership (Molson brothers) replaces him with... oh, Stevie Yzerman, hopefully, and last but not least will the 2009-10 incarnation of the Montreal Canadiens be the cream of the NHL crop (like they did in 2007-08) or will they fizzle and fade quickly (as they did last season).

Is it me or is our beloved Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey starting to act a lot like his New York Rangers counterpart, Glen Sather? What gives with taking on Scott Gomez's monster and stupidly expensive salary? Why is Gainey wasting salary and cap space on a tiny player like Brian Gionta? Why on earth would he sign yet another old defenseman in Jaroslav Spacek, didn't he learn not to waste $$ on old defensemen when he signed Roman Hamrlik to $5.5M a couple yrs back? What about the most recent signing, Paul Mara? Mara is the defenseman version of Alexei Kovalev (read: disappears for long stretches during the season and gets benched) though much less talented of course. Finally, I present to you Exhibit Z in Bob Gainey's ineptitude as a GM, losing 4 key free agents for absolutely NOTHING! Mike Komisarek - Gone! Tanguay - Gone! Kovalev - Gone! And last but not least, Captain Saku Koivu!

Recap: Taking on inflatted salaries, adding inflatted salaries, adding more small players, signing other team's junk UFAs, losing key UFA assets for nothing, a 5-year rebuiling plan that has gone nowhere... yep, sounds and looks a lot like Glen Sather's recipe for ruining a hockey team. This is clearly a desperate attempt on Gainey's part to make something of the team before he gets pink slipped by the new Habs ownership.

Well, when the Leafs GM add IR mainstays Kolzig, Heward and some other bum to it's list of walking wounded, you had to ask yourself WTF!?

Seriously, why would a knowledgeable NHL GM such as Burke take on deadweight contracts and players he can't use?

Simple, Brian Burke is making a play for either Martin St-Louis or Vincent Lecavalier... at least that's what I'm guessing. Why else would he do such as favor for a rookie GM in Brian Lawton? Helps the Bolts free some cap space, cut some payroll, remove bodies from the dressing room that honestly aren't wanted for needed. This was a trade to help Tampa out of a mini financial crunch and build brownie points and goodwill that will lay the foundation for a future (perhaps Draft day) trade between the Maples Leafs and Lightning. Stay tuned, will Toronto land Vinny or Marty... my money is on Vinny!

Well, it's that time of year again, you know... when all Habs fans need to brace themselves to jump off the Montreal Canadiens bandwagon. Haha!

Well... it's true, 1st sign of a rough patch and everyone's calling for someone's head. Listen, Montreal is not Ottawa and in the mecca of hockey, we don't need to sacrafice humans anymore.

So Montreal has lost a few games in a row... so what, don't all teams hit a skid sometime during a long 82-game season? They do, it happens annually and almost without fail and things usually get back on track. Last year, the Habs went on a losing streak when the Winter flu bug made it way through the team. Approximately 7 games later, Montreal was back to it's winning ways and looked good until they hit a couple of speed bumps in Martin Biron and R.J. Umberger of the Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals.

Let's all stop calling for Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, Saku Koivu and Alexei Kovalev's heads. It's not necessary and time will right the Habs ship. Afterall, Montreal is destined to win the Stanley Cup this year right, it's the team's Centennial celebration and Montreal needs to cap things off with a parade (riot) down St-Catherine St. :)